


Shut Up And Dance With Me

by OneThreateningAcronym



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Collin has anxiety, M/M, OCs - Freeform, bit headcanon-y, cameos of other characters that don't do much, i continue to not have an excuse for any of this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 07:22:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6070312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneThreateningAcronym/pseuds/OneThreateningAcronym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Johnny groaned where he stood next to Collin, “Remind me why we’re doing this again?”</p>
<p>Collin’s answer was short, even, and precise: “Because the Journalism Club needs information for the article we’re writing.”</p>
<p>“Remind me why I’M doing this again?”</p>
<p>“Because you owe Suzy a favor.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shut Up And Dance With Me

_Tick, Tock_

_Tick, Tock_

_Tick_

_Tock_

 

Collin squirmed in his seat. The urge to turn and check the clock was almost overwhelming, but he did his best to ignore it. Which was difficult considering it was the loudest noise in his otherwise dead silent home, but his effort was commendable. Collin hummed quietly in annoyance and chewed the inside of his cheek. He reminded himself to not get worked up over all this. That logically this was out of his hands and the best course of action was to stay calm. That he should think about kittens and puppies and NOT why he was still sitting alone at his kitchen table.

The reminders didn’t help. Collin’s eye twitched.

 

_Tick_

_Tock_

_Tick_

 

He didn’t need a reminder for why he was sitting home alone, waiting. As if he could forget. The boy scowled. The fact of the matter was that his _“date”_ was running about 20 minutes late. Collin used to term _“date”_ lightly and with a fair amount of derision; derision he’d kept off his tongue when discussing this with Suzy earlier. That was how she had told him to imagine it as, a _date_. Collin had personally added air quotes every time she’d referred to it as that. After all this wasn’t a date, it was work, and Collin was going to treat it as such. Besides, you needed to be in the company of someone whose presences you enjoyed to go on a date.

Collin rolled his eyes. Either way, the entire plan was going to be for nothing if his partner didn’t show up soon. If Collin weren’t so miffed he’d have probably begun to panic. He hated when things didn’t go according to plan. Behind him, the clock mocked him loudly.

 

_Tick_

_Tock_

_Tick_

_Tock_

 

The journalist’s muscles buzzed with anxious energy. His legs itched with the desire to get up and do _something_ besides sit and wait, but he refrained. Decked to the sixes as he was he didn’t feel much like moving, lest he get cat hair on his clothes. Or pace a hole in the floor. Frankly, he was only worried about that. Collin whined quietly and set his chin in his palm, pouting. He set his other hand on the table and drummed his fingers, hoping to distract himself.

 

_Tic_

_Tock_

_Tick_

_Ta-ta-tap_

_Tick_

 

Collin sighed. His mind stuck on his current predicament, despite his best efforts. Mayview was a very small town, really. Even if you were walking from hill to hill, it never took longer than 10 minutes, 12 if you felt lazy. Collin just couldn’t wrap his head around it. There was no _reason_ for his _“date”_ to be late. Was it really that difficult to just show up on time?

 

_Ta-ta-tap_

_Tock_

_Tick_

_Knock, knock_

_Tock_

_Ta-ta-ta-tap_

 

The longer he stewed on it, the angrier Collin grew. Every second that _ticked_ by just served to sour his mood. The 12 year old scowled a scowl that looked hilariously out of place on his childish face. Collin had already been reluctant to go along with Suzy’s hairbrained scheme to begin with and this was just the icing on the cake. Really, what point was there in getting dolled up for some silly party that probably wouldn’t even MAKE the Journalism Club’s paper, let alone be read by anyone? And she assigned him a bodyguard. A bodyguard! Collin scoffed, quiet and unamused. What did he even need a bodyguard for? It was just a party. He could take care of himself just fine!

 

_Ta-ta-tap_

_Tick_

_Tock_

_Knock knock knock_

_Ta-ta-ta-tap_

_Tick_

 

Of course, Suzy had been insistent. She’d explained very adamantly that she and Dimitri just weren’t the right people for the job; only Collin could do the article justice. She just _knew_. Collin had a hard time following her trains of logic at the best of times, but this was proving especially difficult to swallow.

“ _You’ll understand when you get there, seriously!_ ” he implored to the empty house, pitching the tone of his voice to mimic Suzy’s cheerful default. Collin rolled his eyes and found a stain on the table to glare at. He wasn’t going to be understanding anything if his date didn’t show up, he thought to himself. The clock laughed at his misfortune.

 

_Tick_

_Ta-ta-tap_

_Knock knock knock_ **_knock knock_ **

_Tick_

 

The tie around Collin’s neck began to itch. Suzy had picked it out personally with Dimitri’s approval, so now it set strangling the collar of his button up shirt. Collin wasn’t personally fond of the color red but, _again_ , Suzy had _insisted_. The fancy shoes that were currently squishing his toes were also her doing. It wasn’t even that formal of a party, Collin couldn’t help but think. He didn’t understand all the fuss. He was almost half tempted at this point to call the whole show off and stay night in with his cat and-

 

**_BANG BANG BANG BANG_ **

**_BANG BA-BA-BA-BANG_ **

 

Collin screamed and fell out of his chair.

His cat waltzed into the room, curious about the sudden commotion. She rubbed her fur against Collin’s dress pants and meowed unhelpfully at him.

“Ah…” Collin winced, lying on the kitchen tile in a daze. He was 99% positive his heart had just stopped.

 

**_BANG BANG BANG BANG_ **

**_BANG BANG-A-BANG_ **

 

“Mrow…”

Collin sighed and sat up. His cat headbutted his side impatiently, “Yeah, yeah, I heard the door, Ms. Marshmallow.”

Ms. Marshmallow stared at him blankly, truly caring very little for the door and really wanting him to pet her. Cats understood very little of doors, anyways. She meowed and headbutted his hand again. Collin shook his head fondly and scratched her behind the ears, smiling a small smile.

 

**_BANG BANG BANG_ **

 

“YOU BETTER COME OPEN THIS DOOR BEFORE I BREAK IT DOWN, SLOINNE! I DON’T LIKE HAVING TO WAIT!”

The smile fell from Collin’s face in an instant. A glare took its place, dark and irritated, and Collin stood up. The boy clenched his hands into fists. Sensing the change in atmosphere, Ms. Marshmallow darted from the kitchen, the bell on her collar jingling all the way to safety. Collin began to walk. Through a hallway, into the living room and up to the front door. He stopped there, shaking as all of his earlier irritation bubbled to the surface with renewed vigor. His mind raced with words he wanted to tell the person on the other side of the door.

None of them were nice words.

With the most scathing look on his face that Collin was capable of making, he grabbed the door handle and tore the door open.

“Do you have ANY IDEA WHAT--”

Collin choked on his words. His heart dropped into his stomach and skyrocketed into his throat, strangling the nasty comments he’d prepared. Standing on his doorstep. Johnny Jhonny looked at Collin like he’d grown a second head, a shocked expression plain as day on his face. Collin realized he was gaping and smartly snapped his mouth shut. He shook his head, trying to rattle it back into order. He wasn’t entirely successful, but he had managed to whip his expression into something stern. When he spoke, though, the venom in his voice had dried up.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” Collin asked shortly, leveling a look at the bully.

Johnny blinked. He looked at Collin, then leaned to look around Collin at the entryway clock, “7:38?” he responded, leaning back to give Collin an odd look. “I mean, if you were really wondering, you could’ve just turned around and-”

“You were _supposed_ to be here at 7: _15_ ,” Collin cut in, his words ground out through his teeth.

A light bulb went off above Johnny’s head. The redhead laughed. “Oh, is that all?” he asked. Without any further ado or care for his apparent transgression, Johnny shoved past Collin and into the front foyer. Both Collin and his offended sputtering were ignored. Johnny whistled low. “Nice place. You always came off as a pretty well off kinda kid,” he tapped the side of his nose, “got a sense for that kind of thing.”

Collin took a deep, deep breath and let out a sigh to match it. _Kittens and puppies_ , he told himself, _think of kittens and puppies._ Collin closed the door quietly. Turning to Johnny he failed to keep a note of exasperation out of his voice, “Please don’t rob me.”

The boy couldn’t tell if the offended noise Johnny made was sincere or not. “Excuse _you_ ,” the bully sneered, “for your information I’m not in the home invasion business. Extortion is where it’s at and you’ll be smart to remember that.’

“Noted. Thank you, I feel so much better,” was Collin’s dry response. Johnny rolled his eyes at the sarcasm, but Collin paid him no mind. Instead, he took a moment to look the other boy over. They were already behind schedule because of Johnny and they needed to get moving. But if there was even a hair out of place on Johnny’s head, Collin was going to let him have it…

From an objective standpoint, Johnny didn’t look very different. His hair was still a mess of dye and gel, styled to the point of excess. Collin supposed wryly than even Suzy was incapable of miracles sometimes. But what Collin’s attention the most was that Johnny Jhonny, delinquent scourge of the seventh grade, was wearing a _suit_ . An actual, in the fabric suit and everything that entailed. If Collin was dressed to the sixes, Johnny was dressed to the _nines_. The smaller boy felt a sudden, unpleasant combination of underdressed and flustered. Why Suzy went through all the trouble was beyond him. With a cough Collin marched over to where the bully stood purveying the foyer.

“Come here a second, your tie is crooked,” he ordered.

Johnny, to Collin’s relief, managed to pull his eyes away from Collin’s parent’s trophy case to look at him. He stared for a second before looking away sharply, with an annoyed, “What? No. You group of muckrakers already got me into this dumb monkey suit. I’m not gonna give the chance to actually choke me with it,” Johnny crossed his arms and took a step back. Collin bit his tongue. He felt a headache coming on.

“Alright, look: we’re already behind schedule and I really, _really_ don’t want to waste time arguing with you about this,” Collin took several purposeful steps into Johnny’s personal space. Johnny backed up defensively. Collin narrowed his eyes at the bully. “Unless you _really_ want me to reach up there and strangle you, Johnny, you are going to let me fix your bowtie so we can _leave_ ,” Johnny’s eyes went wide at the threat. He looked down at Collin, like he was judging how serious he was. Collin stared back at him stubbornly, refusing to budge.

A small, non-verbal war was waged between them in about three seconds.

Johnny let out a defeated sigh. “Fine, whatever,” he grumbled. Collin sighed too, and relief, and closed the gap between himself and the bully. Johnny tensed. Collin rolled his eyes and reached up to fix the crooked accessory.

“Lift your head a little bit,” he said. Diligently, Johnny did as instructed and lifted his chin. Collin took another step closer, much closer than he really liked. Alas, his short stature had never helped him before and now was no exception. Johnny was obnoxiously tall in comparison and Collin added that to the growing list of things that were getting on his nerves this evening. The bowtie in his hands matched his own tie in color, being a slightly deeper shade of red against Johnny’s black jacket. Suzy’s doing, no doubt.

Johnny breathed out and ruffled Collin’s bangs. Collin’s hands shook. They were _really_ too close for comfort.

“Why were you late, anyways?” he asked, trying to focus on something BESIDES the breathing patterns of the person causing all of his problems tonight.

“Reasons,” Johnny responded, with a shrug Collin felt more than saw.

“Reasons,” Collin repeated doubtfully, raising an eyebrow.

“Reasons!” Johnny said defensively. Collin snorted despite himself and took a good few steps back, looking over his work. He gave a pleased nod and Johnny put his head back down. Less than a second later the bully was already tugging at the bowtie. Collin resisted the overwhelming urge to slap his hand away and sighed instead.

“Well, whatever your reasons, they better have been good ones,” Collin grumbles, turning away to get his coat off the coat rack. “I really wanted to get to this thing early and scope everything out before people started arriving…” Collin slid his coat on and turned back around. Johnny was staring at him. Collin twitched, looking behind himself just in case before turning back to Johnny, “What are you looking at….?”

Johnny shrugged, “Just making sure you’re ready to go.”

Collin rolled his eyes, “Says the one who didn’t arrive on time.”

At that, Johnny flashed Collin a wolfish grin. He felt the breath rush out out of his lungs. Absently, Collin made note of the fact that Johnny in a suit was about 100% more dangerous than Johnny in his usual attire. The journalist swallowed and turned away, trying to calm the sudden bang bang banging in his chest. He buttoned his coat and grabbed the doorknob, turning it much more gently than before as Johnny came up behind him. He could practically hear the smirk in Johnny’s voice when he spoke,

“Haven’t you ever heard of being _fashionably late?_ ”

**Author's Note:**

> So that's the start of that!
> 
> I feel like it should be said that this story is actually completely done, I just need to edit it. I'll be posting chapters when they're ready (or when I remember). All in all, it should end up being about 8 or 9 chapters long, give or take a few executive decisions. So don't be fooled by that 1/1 up there! I'm still fiddling with things.
> 
> Thanks for reading along! I hope you enjoyed it~


End file.
